Christoph Sietzen

The percussionist Christoph Sietzen has been praised as an exceptional talent by the press due to his refreshing spontaneity, technical mastery and distinctive stage presence. He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival at the age of 12 and won the 2014 ARD International Music Competition and young artist of the year at the International Classical Music Awards in 2018. During the 2017/18 season he was named a rising star by the European Concert Hall Organization.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season have included the world premiere of a new percussion concerto by Johannes Maria Staud with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst, the German premiere of a concerto that Georg Friedrich Haas wrote for him with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under François-Xavier Roth, and Iguazú superior for ‘ten sound-makers’, also by Haas, at Wien Modern with the Motus Percussion ensemble. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra and the Nuremberg State Philharmonic Orchestra among others, and has toured with the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen. He has also continued his duo project with the organist Christian Schmitt in Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Vienna and Dresden, and performed with Tabea Zimmermann at Schloss Elmau, and with The Wave Quartet at the Heidelberg Spring festival.

Following his first solo CD Attraction, in autumn 2018 Christoph Sietzen released Incantations, his debut CD on the Sony Classical label, featuring percussion concertos by Avner Dorman and Einojuhani Rautavaara, for which he was named young artist of the year at the 2019 OPUS Klassik Awards. The same year, his latest album Silence was also released by Sony Classical, on which he performed alongside Bogdan Bacanu, Clemens Hagen and the Academy of Ancient Music. As with his two previous albums, the recording received a Pizzicato Supersonic Award.

Christoph Sietzen has appeared in concert at renowned concert halls in Europe and Asia with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Academy of Ancient Music, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg as well as with artistic partners such as Ilan Volkov, Marin Alsop, Alondra de la Parra, Howard Griffiths, Yutaka Sado, Frank Strobel, Alexander Liebreich, Cristian Mandeal, Michel Tabachnik, Bogdan Bacanu, Peter Sadlo, Martin Grubinger, Oscar-winning actor Karl Markovics and multi-instrumentalist Hubert von Goisern. In 2019 he was a Great Talent Artist at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Christoph Sietzen is a member of the marimba ensemble The Wave Quartet founded by Bogdan Bacanu, with whom he has released several recordings. He is also the founder of the percussion ensemble Motus Percussion.

From 2014 to 2019 Christoph Sietzen taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Since 2020 he has taught at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz.

He is brand ambassador for the Dutch instrument maker Adams Musical Instruments.